


Single Rider

by sewer_seance



Category: Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Genre: Fluffyfest, M/M, Meet-Cute, Modern AU, Single Rider AU, Theme Park AU, au month challenge, jay gatsby is black, slaps roof of fanfic, this bad boy can fit so many blushes in it, yeet tom into the sun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:48:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25031227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sewer_seance/pseuds/sewer_seance
Summary: Nick Carraway is trying to remember why coming to a theme park as a third wheel was a good idea in the first place when he is paired with the very friendly and alarmingly handsome Jay Gatsby due to the parks "single riders will be paired" policy. Suddenly, being a third wheel isn't so bad after all - A fluffy little oneshot to kick off the Great Gatsby AU month challenge!
Relationships: Daisy Buchanan & Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanan/Tom Buchanan, Nick Carraway/Jay Gatsby
Comments: 13
Kudos: 130





	Single Rider

It was getting harder and harder to remember why Nick agreed to tag along on this vacation. Yes, Daisy had struck a chord with him with how hard she begged, and yes, he couldn’t say no to her when she was like that, no matter how much he wanted to. At the time, it didn’t seem like such a bad idea. Tom and Daisy were going to one of those resort theme park places for a few days, and they had invited Nick to come along as a third. Spending time with Tom wasn’t so ideal, and Daisy seemed to be more manic than usual lately, but some time off was just what the doctor ordered. For all of them. What Nick hadn’t considered was the awkward grouping that he had agreed to. So far, he had spent the entire vacation third wheeling the couple. 

For the most part it wasn’t an issue. They all ate together and had no problems with conversations. It was when they got to the rides that Nick really felt the pressure, especially the rides with two seats per row. Nick didn’t mind the separation the first day. The second day was a little more difficult. The group stood in line for a ride based off a horror movie, the que decorated to match the film. However, the gruesome set didn’t scare him nearly as much as when Tom pointed out a sign. 

“Single riders will be paired,” Tom read aloud while pointing, “Guess you won’t be riding this by yourself.” 

Daisy was huddled into Nick’s side, ready to hide her face in case anything jumped out at her. She had tried to cuddle against Tom, and that had worked for a minute or two before he became annoyed (“Christ, Daisy! It’s just the line! If this is how you’re gonna act on the ride, maybe we shouldn’t go on it!”). “I’m glad,” she breathed, pulling away to look tragically at Nick, “I can’t imagine what this would be like all alone!” 

Nick shrugged. Honestly, he didn’t mind either way, regardless of how scary the ride was. Social interaction with a stranger was scarier than anything the ride could throw his way. Later rather than sooner, it was their turn to board the coaster. With the way the numbers worked out, Daisy and Tom were put onto the cart in front of his. They clicked out of sight, Daisy waving nervously with one arm, the other wrapped around Tom. Then Nick was directed to a slot that would put him in the very front. He didn’t stand there alone for long. 

A man, another single rider, was directed to stand next to him. Nick had noticed him earlier in line behind his own group a little ways, and noticed him a few times after that before Tom and Daisy could become suspicious of all his ‘noticing’. He had golden brown skin and deep eyes that crinkled up at the corners with the winning smile he flashed at Nick as he approached. 

“Hey,” he greeted, “I’m glad they’re pairing people up for this ride. It’s a little too spooky to ride alone.”

Nick smiled and nodded, at a loss for a response other than, “Yeah.” The guy was the definition of ‘social butterfly’. He was pretty as one, too. Nick realized he was staring, blushed, and turned his attention to the approaching cart. In his defense, this guy was very easy to stare at, from his smile, which was so painfully genuine and beautiful, to everything else. 

“I’m Jay,” the man said as they stepped into their seats. 

“Nick,” he half-smiled as he pulled the lap bar down. 

The ride was mostly dark, with flashes of light every so often. The cart juttered and shook with sudden spins and stops. They dropped down into the darkness, cool, musty air ruffling both Nick’s hair and shirt. Next to him, he could hear Jay whoop. A smile broke out across his own face as he joined in the exhilarated, semi-terrified cry. The cart was brought to an edge and for a second or two the ride was halted, booming sound effects echoing around them. An animatronic monster jumped out at them from seemingly nowhere, red lights and smoke illuminating its face. Jay yelped and a hand grasped Nick’s tightly and out of instinct he gripped it back. Before either could process or let go, the cart was shooting backwards down a hill, the both of them screaming in unison. Their hands remained clasped for the rest of the ride. 

Their cart pulled up to the unloading platform. Jay looked over at Nick and let out a shaky sort of laugh. “That was epic,” he breathed, placing a hand to his forehead. 

“You can say that again,” Nick huffed back, an open smile adorning his face. Something passed Jay’s face for a millisecond, something shining in his eyes. Nick supposed he had on a similar expression; one where lingering adrenaline left his features illuminated and exposed. It was an intimate expression to share with a stranger. The two walked out of the ride in silence, still trying to catch their breaths. Realizing that this is typically where they would part ways, Nick turned to Jay. The man was already looking at him. Going by his drawn up eyebrows, he must’ve had the same realization as Nick: he didn’t want to say goodbye. He flushed and opened his mouth to say something, anything, but one look at Jay’s dark, empathetic eyes, and his words died out on his tongue. 

“Nicky! You survived!” Nick barely had time to turn around before he was pulled into a hug by a laughing Daisy. “I almost didn’t make it. Tom, tell Nick how I almost didn’t make it!” 

“She almost didn’t make it. Time to move on to the next ride.” 

Daisy swatted Tom’s arm. While the two began to squabble for a bit, Nick turned back around to Jay, but he was already gone. He felt himself sag, the sting of a missed connection settling itself on his heart. Sure, he might be over romanticising things, but he would have at least liked to have had small conversation with Jay. It wasn’t often that you were paired by someone so cute as that by massive corporations. Daisy was tugging on his arm, urging him to follow her and Tom to the next attraction. After a second more of moping, Nick obliged. 

The next line moved much faster, as the ride wasn’t based off of any popular movies and thus drew less of a crowd. Again, there was a sign that read “single riders will be paired”. Nick sighed. He was calling it now: whoever was paired with him this time wouldn’t be nearly as intriguing. To Nick’s delight, he was wrong. 

This time he was directed to go stand next to the solitary rider. That rider just happened to be a familiar face. Jay beamed when he saw Nick headed his way and let out a chesty laugh. “How wild is this?” he asked when Nick reached him. 

Nick shrugged, a smile of his own splitting his face. “It is pretty crazy,” he admitted. And lucky. Someone was smiling down on him today. “Sorry about before,” Nick rushed to get out as they were shepherded onto the roller coaster. “I meant to say goodbye-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jay cut him off, “You looked a little tackled.” He winked at him before his face disappeared behind the headrest. 

Unlike the last ride, there wasn’t any option for mobility. They were strapped in pretty securely. And if the restraints didn’t make it hard enough, the speed and force of the coaster did the trick. The wind in his ears was so thunderous, he couldn’t hear anyone else’s screams above the roar. The track took them sideways, upside down, dropped them from ridiculous heights to the lowliest of lows. By the end, all the wind had been sucked out of Nick and his voice was hoarse. 

He stumbled out of his seat as soon as the latches clicked, but still had no time to catch his breath. He was being whisked away before he knew it, a warm hand wrapping around his, but this time it wasn’t Daisy doing the tugging. Nick looked down at the fingers that had entwined with his and recognized them as belonging to Jay. The darker-skinned man was pulling him ahead of the rest of the disembarking riders to the exit with as much gusto as someone who just got off a death-defying machine could. He came to a sudden stop near the exit, Nick crashing into him. 

“What was that?” Nick wheezed, gripping onto Jay’s shoulder as he caught his breath. 

Jay had whipped out his phone and positioned them so the people at the counter couldn’t see what he was doing. “Picture,” he hissed back, waggling his eyebrows. Looking up, Nick finally processed where Jay had dragged him and why he was in such a hurry to get there. Their picture had been taken at some point during the ride and was now displayed on a myriad of screens. On one screen Nick could just make out Tom and Daisy. Tom had a scowl set in place, eyes wide, mustache seemingly lopsided on his twisted mouth. Daisy had her eyes screwed up tight, her dark curls blown back from her face. 

“There we are!” Jay laughed and pointed to one of the screens before snapping a sneaky photo. Nick turned his attention to the screen Jay had mentioned and felt his cheeks go scarlet. Even in the middle of a loop-de-loop, Jay was beautiful. His face was an explosion of joy. His eyes were wide open and bright and it looked as if the camera had caught him mid laugh. His cheeks were pink with the thrill of it all, and a glance to Nick’s side confirmed that blossoms of pink were still present on Jay’s cheeks. All the breath that Nick had regained rushed out of his body. Jay looked over at him, smirking. 

“You look ridiculous.” 

Nick whipped his attention back to the picture. He did indeed look ridiculous. He pushed off from Jay’s shoulder, which he had been hanging off of this whole time, and leaned in to see the picture better. His face looked like it was caught somewhere between a cough and a scream. Before now, he didn’t think it was possible for his face to contort like that, like something from a cartoon. That was nothing to say of his hair. The wind had pushed it out in every other direction so that it looked like some poor animal was clinging to his head for dear life. 

“Oh god,” Nick grimaced, to which Jay broke out into laughter. 

“Put that on the cover of Vogue!”

“Shut up,” Nick blushed, unable to keep the smile off his face. He turned around to face Jay, but his smile faltered a little. Coming up behind them were Tom and Daisy. 

“I’m keeping this forever,” Jay smiled down at his phone, unaware that two more people had caught up with them. 

Tom cleared his throat. Jay looked up, but Tom wasn’t looking at him. He was raising a disapproving eyebrow at Nick. Daisy just looked confused. 

“We were looking at the pictures,” Nick muttered like a child who had been caught doing something naughty. “There you guys are,” he pointed, hoping that they wouldn’t find the picture of him and that they would be distracted enough by their photo to forget to be angry with him. 

“Come on,” Tom said gruffly after looking at the photo for half a second, “We’re going to find some lunch.” He barreled past Jay, bumping into his shoulder. Nick knew him well enough to know that it was most definitely on purpose. 

“Oh, well-” Nick began, turning back to Jay, who seemed a little taken aback by Tom. 

“Now,” Tom nearly shouted, still plowing ahead. 

Nick looked helplessly between Tom, Daisy, who was hurrying after Tom, and the expectant Jay. “He gets hangry,” Nick muttered as some form of apology before following after his cousin. He waved over his shoulder and paused for a second, debating how bad it would be if he lost Tom and Daisy in order to stay with Jay if only for a few more seconds. In the end, family ties won out. 

Tom stayed in a bad mood all throughout lunch. He brooded over his fries, poking at them in between bites. Several times Daisy tried to start up a conversation to lighten up the mood, but every time Tom would grunt and the conversation would die. After the fifth time this happened, Daisy snapped. 

“Tom,” she whined, “What’s wrong? You’re ruining this day with your attitude so either let it go or tell us what’s up!”

“I’m just tired,” he grumbled, eyes flickering to Nick. “This is our second day in the park. It’s too much at once.” He slapped his hands together to get rid of the salt and grease instead of using a napkin. “I need a break. Daisy, let’s go back to our rooms,” Tom paused and sized Nick up. “You can come, too, if you want.” 

Nick shook his head. “I think I’ll stay out for a while longer,” he mumbled. He could sense the fight that was coming when the couple got back to their rooms and personally, Nick didn’t want to witness that today. Especially when he suspected that the fight had something to do with him. 

Tom rose forcefully. “Have it your way,” he said, beckoning Daisy to his side. Daisy threw Nick an apologetic look before resigning herself underneath Tom’s arm. “I’ll see you back at the resort!” she called as Tom towed her away. Once alone, Nick sank into the bench a little. It was draining to be around Tom when he was in a mood. He knew that Daisy probably felt guilty about abandoning him, but he didn’t mind it one bit. In all honesty, he had secretly been hoping that an opportunity like this might present itself at some point during their vacation. Now he was free to go at his own pace and go where he wanted to go. And where he wanted to go was the adventure ride. 

Tom had refused to go on this particular ride because the wait was too long for him to handle. It was based off a popular action-adventure movie, so the line was monstrous. But Nick was a patient person; he had no problem waiting for something he wanted. The entrance for the ride was a little hard to locate, hidden within some dense foliage. He turned the corner without looking where he was going and rammed into someone. 

“Oh, I’m sorry-” Nick stuttered out but stopped short. For the third time that day, he had come face to face with Jay. 

“I was hoping to run into you again,” Jay admitted with a sheepish smile, “You left before I could ask you for your number.” 

Nick nearly choked and he could feel his eyes bug out. Jay wanted  _ his _ number? That didn’t make sense. Nick was the one who was crushing on a stranger. He hadn’t even considered the possibility that the stranger was crushing on him back!

“So I could send you the photo from before,” Jay explained, waving his phone. Nick smothered his hopes and controlled his face. 

“Oh yeah, that makes sense,” he rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly hot with embarrassment. He exchanged numbers with Jay, trying not to shake as he did so. Even if it was for a picture, maybe they could start up a conversation as well...or the habit of conversations. 

“Are you going into this ride, too?” Jay gestured toward the entrance that Nick had previously been struggling to find. Nick nodded. “Want to go in together?” Jay asked, pink blossoming on his cheeks. Again, Nick nodded. 

The line was as long as the rumours said it would be. Nick wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. It would’ve been fine with him if the line stretched out into eternity if it meant he’d be stuck in it with Jay. With scenes from the classic movie as their backdrop, the two talked. There was never a moment of silence between them as they kept asking questions and telling each other stories about themselves. Jay asked about Tom and Daisy, and Nick tried to keep his answer as brief as possible. 

“Daisy is my cousin and Tom is her husband,” he winced, remembering that they were most likely in the middle of a volcanic fight. 

“Do you like Tom?” Jay asked, his face saying he already knew the answer. 

“He’s the worst,” Nick admitted, “But hey, when you’re offered a free trip to Florida, you don’t say no.” 

Jay laughed and nodded. “Very wise.” 

A few minutes later, Nick learned that Jay had actually worked at a particularly famous theme park by playing the role of a particularly famous frog prince. The idea of Jay in the costume drew a smile to Nick’s lips, as well as a deep blush because  _ damn it  _ he looked good in that too. 

They talked a bit about their families, where they grew up, what they did for a living, what their interests were. They discussed any and every topic. Nick liked watching slasher movies while yelling at the characters. Jay couldn’t drive by dog parks anymore because the last time he did he almost crashed his car. Nick had done a gig as the Easter Bunny one year in college and he still had nightmares about it. Jay never quite left his middleschool anime phase. By the time it was time to board the ride, they were talking like they had known each other all their lives. The ride, a boat, started down the false river and Jay reached over and squeezed Nick’s hand. Nick didn’t let go. 

Nick snuck into the rooms they had gotten at the resort. Luckily, Nick and the other two had gotten separate rooms. Unluckily, the rooms were conjoined. He didn’t want either of them to hear that he had returned. Nick crawled onto his bed, exhausted from another day of walking and thrill-seeking. Still, he had never felt more at peace. He attempted to kick off his shoes but gave up after a minute. He could take them off later. Now, he just needed to crash. Nick buried his face into the downy pillows, seconds away from drifting off when his phone buzzed. 

The message was from an unknown number with a file attached. Nick hazily opened the message. A warm feeling blooming in his chest told him he already knew what it was. Sure enough, it was an image of him and Jay on a rollercoaster, one of them looking like a cartoon goblin, the other like a god. Nick silently cursed and blessed whatever genes Jay had to look like that at all times. His phone buzzed again, one last message coming in beneath the picture. 

_ Don’t forget to get this framed, Old Sport. -JG <3 _

**Author's Note:**

> The Great Gatsby AU month is upon us! Day one has brought us fluff. Who the hell knows what day two will bring. I had no idea what to rate this, but just to be safe, I'm going with T. 
> 
> My aunt used to work at one of Mr. Mouse's theme parks and she has the most ICONIC and HILARIOUS stories from her job as a character and I could just see Jay having those kinds of stories as well. Such as Winnie the Pooh falling off a golf cart, rolling down a hill at break-neck speed into the Hundred Acre Woods. No honey loving bears were hurt. Just pissed as hell. 
> 
> Also, Jay Gatsby is black in this fic because I need him to be, ok? I've had that personal headcanon for y e a r s and I needed to write it into existence. Black Jay Gatsby will most likely feature in other future fics as well. 
> 
> As always, comments are always welcome!


End file.
